'If the dimensions of the strategic partnership worked out by India and the US seem like a grand alliance targeted at you-know-who, China had better realise that it has fathered it,' says B S Raghavan, a long time observer of China.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday put state-owned ONGC and OIL on notice saying oil and gas reserves they hold need to be monetised through joint ventures with domain experts or the government will take them away and auction them. Speaking at BNEF Summit, he said state-owned firms cannot indefinitely sit on resources when the nation is a net importer of oil and gas. Despite India bidding out acreages to private and other companies since the 1990s, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) hold a "sizeable number of acreage for years," he said.
In December 2019, the India arm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu surprised many with its ultra-competitive bid to become the transaction advisor for the country's largest strategic divestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). The multinational major quoted just Rs 1; the second-highest bidder, SBI Caps, reportedly quoted Rs 15-17 crore. For Deloitte, the motivation was to bag a prestigious deal adding a national energy company to its portfolio. No doubt, it expected BPCL to go to a marquee buyer in quick time.
'At the first board meeting I chaired, I sensed that corporate governance is an issue in this company.' 'I started taking steps that may have aggrieved a few.' 'This has now become a mission I intend to accomplish before I step down.'
Police sources said the state forces exchanged fire for about 40 minutes.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad on Wednesday hinted at a thaw between his party and the Congress, saying had a telephonic talk with Sonia Gandhi whom he asked to hold a meeting of 'like-minded' parties which could join hands to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mizoram accused Assam of human rights violations, a charge denied by Guwahati which said on Monday that encroachment of its land was the crux of the border dispute between the two Northeastern states.
The CRPF, the country's largest paramilitary force, has been providing security to about 60 dignitaries and high-profile persons, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka.
'Sometimes we use political pressure and sometimes political acumen to get what we want.'
Merely bringing down the government stake below 51% may not find any taker for the PSBs. The government must bring down its holding to at least 26%, recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Indian Armed forces will leave no stone unturned to safeguard the country's frontiers, he insisted.
Russia and China have a broad consensus today on almost all core issues related to global strategic stability, which is unprecedented in modern history, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
DBS Bank India on Monday said customers of Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which has now been merged with it, can continue to access all banking services, and interest rates on savings and fixed deposits are unchanged as of now. Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) has now been amalgamated with DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL), the wholly-owned subsidiary of DBS Group Holdings Ltd, DBS Bank India said in a statement.
With new private banks in the play, the going could become more difficult for the old-school state-run banks, already losing business and market position, forcing them to think hard towards consolidating and forming larger entities to garner big-ticket deals.
"Water has gone above the head. Now we mean business. You (Centre) will arrange everything now," the court said.
Tata Sons has emerged as the top bidder for the takeover of debt-laden State-run airline Air India but the bid is yet to be approved by a group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, sources said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over 10 hours by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper and was called to depose again on Tuesday, as his party protested across the country, alleging that the Centre was targeting the Opposition by misusing agencies.
The Supreme Court Tuesday "tentatively" indicated that it is inclined to set aside a part of the high court order quashing the chargesheet against an accused, allegedly involved in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, for the purported offences under the provisions of the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA).
The US on Friday issued orders to ban popular Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat from Sunday to safeguard national security, weeks after India banned them, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.
"Financial bids for Air India disinvestment received by Transaction Adviser. Process now moves to concluding stage," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
The Congress chief said if his party is elected to power, its government would spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education.
The Assam police has summoned Mizoram's lone Rajya Sabha MP K Vanlalvena on August 1 for questioning over his alleged "threatening statement" over Monday's violence along the interstate border, and pasted a notice at his Delhi residence.
Serum Institute of India CEO Aadar Poonawalla has said that the production of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield is in full swing in Pune and he will review the operations once he is back in the country in a few days. Poonawalla is currently in the UK to meet his family members.
An elusive figure, Hidma is a top leader of the outlawed Naxal outfit CPI (Maoist) and has been on the radar of security agencies for many years.
The maximum 80 companies, as per an official order, will be drawn from the Central Reserve Police Force followed by 70 from the Sashastra Seema Bal, 55 from the Border Security Force, 50 from the Central Industrial Security Force, 30 from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force and 15 from the RPF.
'These people jump up and down, excitedly waving their arms about to catch the attention of one political party or the other.' 'This mutant can be very dangerous,' observes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The government assured the Opposition that reservation to Anglo-Indians will be considered later.
During the three-day mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast and there will be no public entertainment, a notification issued by the Assam government said.
"India has given a stern signal to its enemies by conducting surgical and air strikes. This tells us that India is changing and can take the most difficult decisions and isn't reluctant to implement them," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday in his Independence Day address to the nation.
Border skirmishes witnessed a spurt after India's preemptive air strike.
Wearing black arm bands and holding placards, the women protesters were not allowed by the police personnel to assemble and were asked to disperse peacefully.
'I thought that the days of firing between two police forces (belonging to states of the Union of India) were over.'
'The Olympic Spirit has been thrown to the wind in Xi Jinping's China.' 'The International Olympic Committee is ready to kowtow to totalitarian China,' notes Claude Arpi.
The resurgence of COVID-19 has dented but not debilitated economic activities in the first half of Q1 of the current fiscal even though caseload of infections is much higher than before, according to an RBI article. The ferocity of the second COVID-19 wave has overwhelmed India and the world, the article said, adding that war efforts have been mounted to stop the surge in its tracks. "The impact of the second wave on the real economy seems to be limited so far in comparison with the first wave. Evidently, the localised nature of lockdowns, better adaptation of people to work from home protocols, online delivery models, e-commerce and digital payments are at work," the article on the state of economy authored by RBI Deputy Governor M D Patra and other officials said.
The special court in Bangalore on Saturday issued the order for release of All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa from jail here in accordance with the Supreme Court order granting her bail in the disproportionate assets case.
As lobbying and counter-lobbying intensify, right now, it looks like a T20 match, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
A 26-year-old Sikh-American officer in the US Marines who has been allowed to wear the turban - the first person in the 246-year history of the elite force allowed to do so, but with a few limitations, plans to sue the Corps if he is not granted full religious accommodation, according to a media report.
Pompeo, who became the Trump administration's highest ranking official to visit Sri Lanka, said that the US and Sri Lanka shared a vision for democracy to build a relationship and the "freedom to hold democratic elections".
Rediff.com does a quick checklist on what the two manifestos have to say on hot-button issues of the day.
'It was felt that the counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist grid is intact in the UT and these additional units that were sent in last year can be de-inducted giving them the much required rest, recuperation and training'